This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Physics at ODU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Physics Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of ODU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact digitalcommons@odu.edu. Repository Citation CLAS Collaboration; Amaryan, M. J.; Careccia, S. L.; Dodge, G. E.; Hyde, C. E.; Kuhn, S. E.; Mayer, M.; Nepali, C. S.; Niroula, M. R.; Seraydaryan, H.; Tkachenko, S.; Weinstein, L.B.; and Zhang, J., "Photodisintegration of 4HE into p+t" (2009). Physics Faculty Publications. 353. https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/physics_fac_pubs/353

We report the first measurement of differential and total cross sections for the gamma d -> K-0 Lambda(p) reaction, using data from the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Data collected during two separate experimental runs were studied with photon-energy coverage 0.8-3.6 GeV and 0.5-2.6 GeV, respectively. The two measurements are consistent giving confidence in the method and determination of systematic uncertainties. The cross sections are compared with predictions from the KAON-MAID theoretical model (without kaon exchange), which deviate from the data at higher W and at forward kaon angles. These data, along with previously published cross sections for K+Lambda photoproduction, provide essential constraints on the nucleon resonance spectrum. A first partial wave analysis was performed that describes the data without the introduction of new resonances.

We present a device for the production of hyperpolarized 3 He, which is widely used in spinrelated nuclear physics research. Spin-exchange optical pumping (SEOP) is employed to polarize 3 He enclosed in a circular borosilicate glass cell suitable not only for the production of polarized gas but also for its storage. The portable glass cell can, thus, be transported to any other research facility. The glass cell can be refilled several times. Special attention is given to the preparation and the filling of the cell to minimize the impurities on its walls and in the gas. We employ glass tubes with shorter lengths and larger diameters in the gas-filling system to achieve the improvement in the air flow necessary to obtain purer polarized 3 He samples. The cell is prepared, and after it has been filled with rubidium (Rb) and 3 He-N 2 mixture, it is sealed under high vacuum conditions. The cell containing the mixture is exposed to circularly-polarized laser light with a wavelength of 795 nm at temperatures of 180 - 220 °C for SEOP. The polarization of 3 He is measured via nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). We obtained 40% polarized 3 He in less than 15 hours and 50% in about 25 hours. The longitudinal relaxation time T 1 of the polarized 3 He we measured was about 58 hours.

The Heavy Photon Search (HPS), an experiment to search for a hidden sector photon in fixed target electroproduction, is preparing for installation at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) in the Fall of 2014. As the first stage of this project, the HPS Test Run apparatus was constructed and operated in 2012 to demonstrate the experiment׳s technical feasibility and to confirm that the trigger rates and occupancies are as expected. This paper describes the HPS Test Run apparatus and readout electronics and its performance. In this setting, a heavy photon can be identified as a narrow peak in the e+e− invariant mass spectrum above the trident background or as a narrow invariant mass peak with a decay vertex displaced from the production target, so charged particle tracking and vertexing are needed for its detection. In the HPS Test Run, charged particles are measured with a compact forward silicon microstrip tracker inside a dipole magnet. Electromagnetic showers are detected in a PbW04 crystal calorimeter situated behind the magnet, and are used to trigger the experiment and identify electrons and positrons. Both detectors are placed close to the beam line and split top-bottom. This arrangement provides sensitivity to low-mass heavy photons, allows clear passage of the unscattered beam, and avoids the spray of degraded electrons coming from the target. The discrimination between prompt and displaced e+e− pairs requires the first layer of silicon sensors be placed only 10 cm downstream of the target. The expected signal is small, and the trident background huge, so the experiment requires very large statistics. Accordingly, the HPS Test Run utilizes high-rate readout and data acquisition electronics and a fast trigger to exploit the essentially 100% duty cycle of the CEBAF accelerator at JLab.

Much less is known about neutron structure than that of the proton due to the absence of free neutron targets. Neutron information is usually extracted from data on nuclear targets such as deuterium, requiring corrections for nuclear binding and nucleon off-shell effects. These corrections are model dependent and have significant uncertainties, especially for large values of the Bjorken scaling variable x. The Barely Off-shell Nucleon Structure (BONuS) experiment at Jefferson Lab measured the inelastic electron deuteron scattering cross section, tagging spectator protons in coincidence with the scattered electrons. This method reduces nuclear binding uncertainties significantly and has allowed for the first time a (nearly) model independent extraction of the neutron structure function. A novel compact radial time projection chamber was built to detect protons with momentum between 70 and 150 MeV/c. For the extraction of the free neutron structure function F_2n, spectator protons at backward angle and with momenta below 100 MeV/c were selected, ensuring that the scattering took place on a nearly free neutron. The scattered electrons were detected with Jefferson Lab's CLAS spectrometer. The extracted neutron structure function F_2n and its ratio to the deuteron structure function F_2d are presented in both the resonance and deep inelastic regions. The dependence of the cross section on the spectator proton momentum and angle is investigated, and tests of the spectator mechanism for different kinematics are performed. Our data set can be used to study neutron resonance excitations, test quark hadron duality in the neutron, develop more precise parametrizations of structure functions, as well as investigate binding effects (including possible mechanisms for the nuclear EMC effect) and provide a first glimpse of the asymptotic behavior of d/u as x goes to 1.

Exclusive neutral-pion electroproduction ($ep\to e^\prime p^\prime \pi^0$) was measured at Jefferson Lab with a 5.75-GeV electron beam and the CLAS detector. Differential cross sections $d^4\sigma/dtdQ^2dx_Bd\phi_\pi$ and structure functions $\sigma_T+\epsilon\sigma_L, \sigma_{TT}$ and $\sigma_{LT}$ as functions of $t$ were obtained over a wide range of $Q^2$ and $x_B$. The data are compared with Regge and handbag theoretical calculations. Analyses in both frameworks find that a large dominance of transverse processes is necessary to explain the experimental results. For the Regge analysis it is found that the inclusion of vector meson rescattering processes is necessary to bring the magnitude of the calculated and measured structure functions into rough agreement. In the handbag framework, there are two independent calculations, both of which appear to roughly explain the magnitude of the structure functions in terms of transversity generalized parton distributions.

Received 27 January 2014DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.89.029901©2014 American Physical Society